Al Bello/Getty ImagesPhillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins watches his ninth-inning three-run home run off of Ramon Ramirez. The Mets bullpen allowed nine runs to cross in 2 1/3 innings of work Wednesday night.

NEW YORK — As Citi Field organist Ray Castoldi began the first few notes of “Good Lovin’” by The Young Rascals, Terry Collins once again made the all-too familiar slow walk to the pitcher’s mound.

Reliever Ramon Ramirez was at the other end, the latest Mets relief pitcher waiting to get the hook from the manager. Collins signaled toward the bullpen in right-center field for Chris Schwinden.

This was not how Collins envisioned his ninth inning Wednesday night. Not with a Triple-A call-up coming in to try and stop the hemorrhaging from the bullpen. Not with a game that his team had within reach.

“Our guys have been pitching very, very well out of the pen,” Collins would say afterwards. “In situations just like tonight — where you look to get one guy out — they’ve been doing it. But tonight, they didn’t.”

Not only did the bullpen fail to do the job in the Mets’ 10-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday night at Citi Field, but they compounded the problem by making it worse.

After 6⅔ innings of sterling starting pitching by Dillon Gee against Phillies ace Cliff Lee — where Gee left with a 3-1 lead — the Mets bullpen was asked to get seven more outs to close the deal. Take another series from the defending division champions and go into their first off-day in 20 games feeling like there was no fluke about what they have been doing this season.

Instead, Collins took Gee out after two outs in the seventh. In came Bobby Parnell, while Philadelphia countered with Carlos Ruiz, pinch-hitting. Parnell hung a curveball.
Ruiz crushed it.

“It wasn’t the result that I wanted there,” Parnell, who was credited with a blown save, said. “But I was throwing some good curveballs. Unfortunately, I hung that one.”

That only started the snowballing by the Mets bullpen. Ruiz’s two-run homer may have tied the game at 3-3, but it was the following four relief pitchers who helped put the game out of reach. Jon Rauch was next, followed by Tim Byrdak, Ramirez and finally, Schwinden.

The final tally? Five relievers, 2⅓ innings of work — nine runs allowed.

“It is frustrating when you don’t go out there and do your job,” said Rauch, who was tagged with the loss. “We battled back in that game. It was just tough. We’re facing a tough guy to start off the game. He gets a couple runs to work with, pitches his tail off and then not being able to come in there and do the job late — it’s heartbreaking. But it’s baseball.”

Erased in the bullpen carnage was the effort by Gee against one of the game’s best pitchers. The Mets starter scattered six hits — his only blemishes coming on a solo home run in the second by Ty Wigginton and then a two-out double by catcher Brian Schneider, who would later score on the Ruiz homer.

“It’s difficult,” Gee said. “The whole time right there, I’m thinking I just want to finish everything out and finish strong. Looking back at the tape, I tried to make a decent pitch (to Schneider) and he put a good swing on it.”

No one could’ve foreseen that would’ve been where the Mets fortunes would’ve careened off the winning path. And certainly not in the manner in which the bullpen struggled to close the door.